But what does “negligence” mean in a legal sense when it’s applied to a vital matter such as an offshore accident injury lawsuit or a Jones Act lawsuit? In that case, it’s not about failing to take out the trash, so what exactly does “negligence” mean?It means, quite simply, that an employer who’s guilty of it may owe you substantial amounts of money for your maritime injury accident.

More to the point, by definition in a legal context negligence signifies a failure by an employer to exercise reasonable care — care that an average and prudent individual would apply in the same situation. A maritime or offshore employer or the owner of a rig or vessel owes such reasonable care to employees.

If an employer or owner doesn’t provide such reasonable care, then the employer or owner is negligent.

An owner or employer also must provide a workplace for employees that’s reasonably safe, and must apply sufficient care to a rig or vessel so that it’s in reasonably safe condition.

You also may wonder what constitutes a safe place to work.

In a legal sense, it means the workplace is such that employment duties can be performed without undue exposure to unreasonable risks or harm, as long as the worker doesn’t fail to show reasonable care, too, for her or his own safety.

Now, how could negligence be manifested by certain conditions on a vessel, ship or floating offshore rig or platform?

One way is an employer imposing unsafe work methods or hazardous working conditions on employees. Since an employer is responsible for a crew — a crew whom the employer hired and for whom the employer should have provided proper training — then an employer also is responsible if a crew is incompetent and thus causes an accident injury.

Indeed, if a negligent employee harms a co-worker, then that is the employer’s responsibility.

Still more negligent conditions on board are areas where an employer has failed to repair deficient equipment or has failed to maintain properly working equipment.
Also, conditions are negligent if an employer hasn’t complied with safety procedures and other regulations pertaining to a safe workplace. Negligent conditions also include an employer’s failure to alert employees about dangerous conditions about which the employer knows.

Such negligence is a key component to a Jones Act injury lawsuit. That’s because the Jones Act asserts that employer negligence needs to be demonstrated to have led in some way — even a small way — to an accident injury affecting an employee.

It doesn’t have to be the sole cause or even the main cause of an accident, but as long as employer negligence is involved, a Jones Act lawsuit can be advanced.

Hopefully you now understand why negligence is a key factor in a maritime injury lawsuit under the Jones Act. But if you have other questions, let us know. We’re here to help — and that means  you.

For more information, send us the above-displayed free review online form or telephone us via 1-800-566-3434. Then we can exercise reasonable care in taking care of you and your accident injury legal needs.

Royal Dutch Shell claims it’s losing $1 billion per year since the Gulf of Mexico offshore drilling moratorium following the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster off the coast of Louisiana.

The largest oil company in Europe bemoans that its production of oil in the Gulf of Mexico dropped to that extent in 2011 and should do the same in 2012.

Yet the drilling moratorium lasted only six months and only applied to rigs which hadn’t yet begun production. What gives?Apparently it’s a ploy for pity, which is difficult to honor when imagining the enormous profits such energy giants have made over the years.

Besides, consider the true biggest losers when an offshore oil rig or platform explodes and sinks, as occurred with BP’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophe at its Macondo well near Louisiana.

And who are they? They are the 11 innocent men who died in that debacle — men who trusted that their employer would not put them in harm’s way and would do everything necessary and possible to ensure their safety while they labored to make some of those billions for the company.

Royal Dutch Shell wasn’t involved in the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. What it sees as tragic is its alleged loss of $1 billion yearly in cash flow implications until it can get back up to speed in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, workers on various oil companies’ offshore rigs and platforms face daily dangers on the job. Historically, about 100 American offshore and onshore oil rig workers die on the job each year, while many others suffer debilitating injuries.

Is one of those workers related to you? If you know someone who’s suffered a maritime accident injury and now faces mounting medical bills, let us help.

Let us guide you or your loved one through the process of seeking a Jones Act lawsuit to recover economic compensation for accident injury losses. Such recovery includes but is not limited to pain and suffering, as well as medical expenses and the loss of present and future salary.

All you need to do to set this in motion is to contact us, either via our free consultation form above or by calling us at 1-800-566-3434.

You’ll then get a free case review for your maritime or offshore accident injury, and may have the choice of engaging an offshore accident lawyer or Jones Act lawyer to help you with your case.

But you can’t know whether you can succeed in this unless you try. And to try, all you need to do is alert an experienced offshore accident lawyer via our legal service or alert the longtime Gulf Coast law firm known as Jim S. Adler & Associates.

You need offshore accident legal help. We can provide it. So let’s get to it. Call or write us today and launch the process of claiming your accident injury losses via a maritime lawsuit, offshore lawsuit or Jones Act lawsuit.

That’s because many energy companies have offices in Houston. In fact, many have their headquarters there  – either their national headquarters or their global headquarters.This means many employers of offshore workers on floating gas or oil rigs or platforms are based in Houston. And that location can be a factor when an offshore worker is injured in an accident on an offshore oil rig and needs a legal remedy for his or her workplace injury losses.

Maritime workers who are covered by longtime maritime law the Jones Act include those who work on floating oil platforms or rigs. Such rigs cannot be permanently secured to the ocean floor but must be “floating” rigs in order to qualify.

As many as 10 major energy companies based in Houston are involved in offshore drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. These Houston energy companies may be reliable employers of offshore workers.

But in some cases on offshore rigs, the negligence of an employer, owner, operator, captain or crew member can cause an accident injury or death to an innocent worker.

In such cases, the family of the worker has a legal right to pursue the justice of financial recovery for their accident injury losses, such as medical costs, funeral expenses, missing wages and pain and suffering.

If such a legal right is applied by means of the Jones Act, then a Jones Act lawsuit on behalf of an injured offshore worker can be filed in a state court — in the state where the employee lives — or in a federal court that’s nearest to the defendant, or employer.

Houston has a U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, located at 515 Rusk St. in downtown Houston. Such a court is where a Jones Act lawsuit could be heard if the defendant was a Houston-based employer.

As a matter of record, what are some of the energy companies who have headquarters in Houston and have involvement in offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico?

They include Shell, Atwood Oceanics, BP’s American division, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Hercules Offshore, Noble Energy, Marathon Oil Corporation and Scorpion Offshore.

That’s not to say any of these companies is responsible for an offshore accident injury. It’s only to demonstrate that many offshore employers are based along the Gulf Coast in the city of Houston.

If someone in your family was injured in an offshore oil rig accident, it’s best to notify an experienced maritime attorney or Jones Act lawyer to guide you in your legal course of action.

This may mean a federal court Jones Act lawsuit — or it may mean a settlement out of court before such a lawsuit ever comes to trial. You’ll need a Jones Act lawyer or offshore accident lawyer to help you by handling such details in a way that has your best interests at heart.

And you won’t have to worry about paying high legal fees to our legal service, or to the law firm Jim S. Adler & Associates, whose principal offices also are in Houston. We won’t get paid at all unless we win your case, and even then, we’ll receive only a portion of the settlement.

Regardless of where you live, let us help you launch your maritime or offshore injury legal action to get you the money you need for your accident losses. With a maritime lawyer or Jones Act attorney by your side, we can seek the justice that you and your family deserve.

Call us at 1-800-566-3434 or write us via our free legal consultation form. Then let’s get started helping you with your offshore accident injury claim.

Formerly known as British Petroleum, BP has a long and disturbing history of horrific fatal accidents at its facilities. Among many more, these include a 2005 explosion and fire at BP’s refinery in Texas City, TX which took 15 workers’ lives and injured anther 170.Yet BP would prefer that the public see sunny TV ads portraying the energy giant as careful and caring. Such ads aired to some public furor soon after the fiery Deepwater Horizon disaster.

For further image and damage control, BP has moved to block some expert testimony secured  by plaintiffs for the Feb. 27 oil spill trial in a New Orleans, LA U.S. District Court. This trial should help decide divisions of responsibility in the oil spill and its aftermath.

Transocean, owner of the rig, and Halliburton, which cemented its well, are not exposed in such lawsuits over the oil spill, says U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who has the case. Yet those two partners of BP for Deepwater Horizon still could face civil penalties under the Clean Water Act or punitive penalties for their oil spill.

Indeed, federal investigators have found fault in all three companies in the calamity, which caused an estimated $40 billion in damages and cleanup costs along the coasts of Mississippi, Texas, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana. These things happen when a ruptured well unleashes 206 million gallons of crude oil into the water.

The trial will not be touching on the separate cases of 11 offshore workers who died in the conflagration in the Gulf. But that is more of a concern for us.

We are a personal injury legal service offering help to families of an offshore or maritime worker who suffers a severe injury or even death in an offshore accident. We can provide you with an offshore accident lawyer or maritime attorney to handle your case and seek payments to you for your medical costs, lost wages, pain, suffering and other losses due to the accident.

Would you like to learn more? That’s fine, because we’re ready — ready for you.

To get a free legal consultation from our attorney service of Offshore-AccidentLawyer.com, notify us in writing via this site’s free consultation form, or by calling via the toll-free number of 1-800-566-3434. In either case, you can count on us to hurriedly respond and help you size up your chances for a successful offshore accident lawsuit or Jones Act lawsuit. Such a lawsuit can apply the federal maritime law that’s been helping injured seamen and maritime workers for 92 years and counting: the Jones Act. ]]> http://offshore-accidentlawyer.com/2012/02/bp-denies-oil-spill-trial-experts/feed/ 0 http://offshore-accidentlawyer.com/2012/02/offshore-disaster-history/ http://offshore-accidentlawyer.com/2012/02/offshore-disaster-history/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:04:59 +0000 Bruce http://offshore-accidentlawyer.com/?p=1139 When 11 offshore workers died in the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster off the Louisiana coast, many may have considered it the worst oil rig disaster ever. In terms of the ensuing oil spill, it was. In terms of the fatalities, it was not. 

Many worse fatal offshore accidents have occurred over the years. In fact, a survey of the history of offshore accident disasters shows that 770 offshore workers have died in the 11 worst accidents involving semi-submersibles, jack-up rigs, helicopter transports, drillships and other platforms and rigs.

By far the worst fatal accident in offshore disaster history was a 1988 explosion and fire engulfing the platform Piper Alpha about 120 miles offshore from Scotland, killing 167 people.

Almost as bad was when a semi-submersible called the Alexander L. Kielland capsized during a storm in 1980 near Norway’s coast. A total of 123 persons were killed.

Ninety-one offshore workers died when a drillship named the Seacrest capsized during a South China Sea typhoon in 1989. In a 1982 sinking of a semi-submersible called the Ocean Ranger, which was operating around 160 miles from Newfoundland’s coast when a storm struck, 84 crew members perished.

When the drillship Glomar Java Sea capsized and sank in a 1989 typhoon, all 81 workers on board died. A 1979 sinking of the Bohai 2 — a jack-up rig — in a storm off China’s coast killed 72 workers.

A helicopter transport shuttle, the Brent Field Chinook helicopter, crashed in 1986 in the North Sea when ferrying offshore workers back to land. The helicopter was almost at its destination when it crashed, taking 45 lives. (American offshore workers killed in transit to or from their jobs are covered under federal maritime law the Jones Act.)

When the Enchova Central platform near Brazil’s coast suffered a blowout in1984, 42 workers were killed. After a support vessel collided with the Mumbai (Bombay) High North platform in 2005, 22 workers died.

A Usumacinta jack-up rig working in the Gulf of Mexico had a collision with a platform during a storm, starting a fire and forcing an evacuation in which 22 workers were killed.

A C.P. Baker drilling barge became inflamed in 1964 in the Gulf of Mexico, leading to the deaths of 21 offshore workers.

Noting this history of oil rig disasters is not to diminish the awful tragedy of 11 innocent men dying in the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon calamity. But it does underscore the hazards of offshore work, which has taken the lives of hundreds and has injured thousands over the years.

An offshore accident resulting in injury or death to American workers can be the fault of a negligent employer or owner of a rig, platform or vessel. When that is the case, the families of injured or killed workers have a legal right to pursue fair financial compensation for their offshore accident losses, from their medical or funeral costs to their loss of cumulative salary from a breadwinner unable to work to their suffering and pain.

You can get such help via our attorney service of Offshore-AccidentLawyer.com or from the longtime Gulf Coast law firm known as Jim S. Adler & Associates.

We won’t charge you at all unless your case wins, and even then, you won’t pay us out of pocket, since your offshore accident lawyer only will be paid from a portion of the settlement.

So give us a call at 1-800-566-3434 or fill in the free review form above and send it to us. Then we’ll be alerted to your needs and can begin helping you get the money you deserve for an offshore accident claim.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said well owner BP’s contract with rig owner Transocean shielded the latter from many pollution claims. Even so, Barbier pointed out that Transocean still could wind up paying punitive damages and civil penalties.The oil spill spewed an estimated 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in BP’s Macondo field south of Louisiana. Coastal regions of that state, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Texas suffered great environmental and economic losses as a result.

Lawsuits now loom, which BP is trying to settle out of court.

After its investigations, the federal government has spread blame, finding fault with BP, Transocean and well-capper Halliburton for the catastrophe. The oil spill lasted for 87 days before it could be capped.

Almost lost in this discourse is the fact that 11 offshore workers died in the conflagration — workers who’d placed trust in their employer to have a safe workplace.

Families of injured offshore workers have special legal rights granted to seamen by the Jones Act, also known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. In the event of a work accident injury that’s not the fault of the seaman or offshore worker, a lawsuit can be filed against a negligent employer to recover damages for injury or death losses.

Such damages can include funeral costs, medical costs, lost wages into the future and pain and suffering inflicted by the work accident injury or death.

While giant energy companies wrangle about billions of dollars at their disposal, it’s important not to forget the innocent men and women whom they sometimes place in harm’s way in order to reap their profits.

At Offshore-AccidentLawyer.com and at Jim S. Adler & Associates, we don’t forget. Rather, we stand ready to help you with your offshore accident injury claim, possibly by asserting your legal rights under the Jones Act with a Jones Act lawsuit.

Let us know about your situation. Perhaps we can help. All you need to do is reach out, either by calling us at 1-800-566-3434 or by sending in the free consultation form indicated above. Then let us get busy helping you explore your legal options for an offshore accident injury lawsuit.

While today’s culture makes it likely many people would answer “yes” to the first question, it’s becoming even more likely to have “driving distractions” on vessels or rigs involved in maritime or offshore operations. And lives are being threatened as a result.In fact, lives already have been lost due to distractions involving laptops and cell phones aboard maritime vessels.

Sentenced to prison for one year was a tugboat pilot who allowed himself to be distracted by a laptop and cell phone and wound up ramming an anchored small tourist boat while towing a 250-foot barge in the Delaware River near Philadelphia in the summer of 2010.

Two tourists, aged 16 and 20, from the nation of Hungary died in the collision, and anther 11 tourists on board the tiny craft were injured when it capsized in the wreck.

Even the deckhand of the tourist boat, called a “duck boat,” was distracted, in that he was using his cell phone to send text messages when the vessels collided.

When is multi-tasking too much and highly inappropriate? One answer should be obvious: Whenever you’re engaged in the operation of a vehicle, which can be a life or death situation. Those working on a rig or vessel, though not navigating it, also bear this responsibility while involved in their duties.

Cell phones have voice mail. Use it. Text messages are stored to be read later. Do so. But never, ever try operating a ship, vessel or offshore rig and its equipment while simultaneously diverted by telecommunications or electronics devices. You could be placing your life, and those of others, in jeopardy.

Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board Deborah A.P. Hersman says distraction is “a safety concern” which spans “all modes of transportation.” She says it’s wrong to multi-task by texting, surfing the Internet or placing calls while operating or driving a vehicle.

And she’s right. Such distractions can be the difference between a long life and a sudden demise, and that kind of risk isn’t worth it.

If you or a family member work on an offshore rig or platform, perhaps you or your family member behave in a safe, responsible manner and avoid distractions from electronic devices while on the job. But others may not see the vital need for this. They may talk or text by phone at a crucial moment, thus causing an offshore accident injury to you or another crew member.

In the event that someone in your family suffers an offshore accident injury through no fault of their own, notify a knowledgeable offshore accident lawyer or maritime attorney with our legal service or through the law firm of Jim S. Adler & Associates, long a legal fixture on the Gulf Coast.

We can fight for your legal right to secure financial payments for your work accident injury losses, including but not limited to your pain and suffering, as well as your lost wages — both present and into the future — and your hospital or medical expenses.

Alert us today via our toll-free number of 1-800-566-3434, or inform us by using this site’s free consultation online form, and we’ll hurriedly reply to assist you with your offshore injury case.

We also pledge to give you our full attention and not be distracted by irrelevant cell phone calls, text messages or Internet surfing while helping you. Your case deserves to be at center stage without such distractions, and that is the focus it will get from us.

But did you know that many of those rescued might not have survived except for a coincidence?

That coincidence was the location nearby of a supply boat, the Damon Bankston. If the rig’s workers hadn’t taken a dinner break just before the explosion, the supply boat would have been heading back to shore 60 miles away in Louisiana, and far fewer offshore workers would have been rescued.

That close call amid a fiery tragedy set Louisiana Rep. Jeff Landry, a Republican from New Iberia, to thinking. How could a new federal law facilitate such rescues without placing a heavy burden on the energy industry?

His answer came in a rescue boat bill that’s part of more general Coast Guard legislation which would require rescue boats to be stationed within three miles of rigs performing potentially dangerous operations such as drilling, abandonment, plugging or work-over.

When less serious or hazardous operations are underway, rescues boats could be as many as 12 nautical miles from the rig. And a rescue boat could be in the service of more than one rig at the same time, depending on their mutual proximity.

The freshman congressman says the energy industry could take a year to institute the measure. But the energy industry isn’t buying it. Instead, it’s attacking the proposed legislation as being too costly, and also unnecessary since Coast Guard rescue missions could be launched instead.

Is that an argument in favor of less government or more government? We’re not sure. But it’s definitely an argument in favor of energy sector profits over the cost of human safety.

Meanwhile, maritime and marine companies are praising the bill, which would provide them with lucrative deals to provide boats for rescue operations.

If you’re an offshore worker, you know first-hand how dangerous offshore work can be, and how vital it can be to provide proper safety precautions. When that isn’t done, and when innocent offshore workers are injured or killed as a result, their families have a legal refuge in the Jones Act, a long-standing maritime law that can help them get money to cover their losses.

Need to know more? We have more in dozens of articles on this website. Learn how the Jones Act has evolved over the years, and how it can protect you and your family by boosting your chances for collecting payments for your lost wages, your medical bills and your pain and suffering after an offshore accident injury.

Ready to get started? Good. Then call us today at 1-800-566-3434, or fill in our brief free case review window above and send it in. We’ll readily reply to assist you with your case, perhaps with the help of a Jones Act attorney or offshore accident lawyer. ]]> http://offshore-accidentlawyer.com/2012/01/congress-mulls-rescue-vessel-bill-for-offshore-rigs/feed/ 0 http://offshore-accidentlawyer.com/2012/01/offshore-gulf-drilling-leases/ http://offshore-accidentlawyer.com/2012/01/offshore-gulf-drilling-leases/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:35:14 +0000 Bruce http://offshore-accidentlawyer.com/?p=1130 The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, is opening up more areas of the Gulf of Mexico for deepwater drilling. The bureau now proposes a sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf on June 20.

The areas involved include the Macondo field which was the site of the catastrophic fire, explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig in April 2010. This area is known as the Central Gulf. The Deepwater Horizon was about 60 miles offshore from Louisiana.No new leases were sold in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Then the first widespread sale of oil and gas leases in the Gulf involved the western Gulf. The June sale — the second such sale — will be the first for leases in the area of the Deepwater Horizon and  Macondo field.

Ultimately, such leases in the Central Gulf are expected to yield as much as a billion barrels of crude oil and 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

As many as 38 million acres will be up for lease, in locations ranging from 230 miles off the coast to just three miles. Wells would be drilled to depths of up to 11,000-plus feet beneath the sea bottom.

Such work should involve hundreds of drillers, roustabouts, roughnecks and other workers on offshore oil and gas rigs or floating platforms, such as jack-up rigs, semi-submersible platforms, drillships or other rigs or platforms.

These workers likely will hail from such Gulf Coast states as Texas, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, states which already provide many crew members for offshore platforms and oil rigs.

These workers do jobs that are difficult and demanding, yet need not be dangerous. But sadly, sometimes safety standards are allowed to lapse, placing offshore workers in dangerous situations in the workplace.

That can lead to offshore oil rig accident injuries and even deaths, all due to the negligence of an employer or rig owner who was responsible for workers’ safety and yet failed them.

When that is the case, the families of injured offshore workers can seek the justice of financial compensation for their losses.

Nothing can bring back a lost loved one or restore the loss of an eye, a hand or a leg lost in an injury. But an offshore accident lawsuit can bring victims economic recovery in the form of payments for their medical expenses, their funeral costs, their lost salary and the suffering and pain they’ve endured due to a horrendous offshore accident.

Thanks to longtime maritime law the Jones Act, offshore workers and their families have a legal means to claim such payments. The Jones Act allows them to sue a negligent employer in state or federal court, and before a jury of their peers, if they choose.

Now you only need to choose an offshore accident lawyer if you or a relative has suffered an offshore accident injury. And you’ve come to the right place to do that.

In fact, we can offer you a free legal consultation. And all you need to do is call us at 1-800-566-3434 or write us by using our free online consultation form. Then we’ll hasten to respond with help for your offshore accident injury case, perhaps with help from an offshore accident lawyer in a Jones Act lawsuit.

Now hear this: Our legal service won’t be paid unless you win. And even then, we’ll only receive a portion of the settlement issued in your favor.

Ready to get started? Good. We’re ready for you. Contact us today, and let us launch the process of getting you the payments you legally deserve for your offshore accident injury.